Will judge’s ruling force Cowboys to change their draft thinking?

IRVING – The NFL’s request for a stay of U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson’s Tuesday ruling that granted the players an injunction to lift the lockout was denied Wednesday, creating even more confusion within the league on the eve of the draft.

In her decision, Nelson said all the lockout rules are over and that the league year must begin immediately. Although teams aren’t required to sign free agents, they must open their facilities for players to work out.It will be interest to see what the league does regarding free agency. On Tuesday, Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said that the lack of free agency benefited the team in terms of the draft.“At the end of the day, we would hope that by not having free agency it would make our board all the more pure,” Jones said. “You won’t tend to lean more toward needs. When you have free agency before the draft, you tend to try to build from needs and then you are more focused on maybe one or two things that you haven’t found in free agency that you could get in the draft.“By not having free agency, all things are fair game in terms of the different positions. I think that will really push us more toward taking the very best player on the board than not being dictated to by a particular need. Because I think that at this point you look at our roster, you look at who is under contract this year, who might be up for a contact next year, and theoretically for the most part we could pick any position and it would be a good pick for us as far as the future of the Cowboys.”

But if free agency is indeed in place, do the Cowboys now look for a safety to sign rather than draft one? Do they go after a veteran nose tackle to back up Jay Ratliff or do they target the position in the draft?